Turkish PM Wants Probe Of Armenia Genocide Claims

8 March 2005 -- Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called today for an impartial historical study of Armenian claims of genocide by Ottoman Turkish troops nearly a century ago.

Erdogan told journalists in Ankara that Turkey has opened its archives to those who claim there was genocide. They in turn should open their archives, he said.

Teams of historians from both sides should then conduct studies in these records, he said.

Armenia says some 1.5 million ethnic Armenians died between 1915 and 1923 on Ottoman territory in a systematic genocide. Turkey denies any genocide, saying the Armenians were victims of a partisan war which also claimed many Turkish lives.